THE LEGEND OF KIWAKAAZI

“It seems you have found the valley of peace,” said one of the nhutus in a voice that sounded like a baby’s voice. All five nhutus were floating on hexagonally shaped ice. The nhutus were staring at Kiwakaazi and Deila, and, they also stared at the nhutus. With their eyes both parties were weighing their opponents. With their eyes one could tell their intentions. The wind blew and the fire lights flickered; ripples were formed on the surfaces of the pools and dust was lifted high in the air. The atmosphere was charged. Who will attack first?

There were five nhutus in Nomposuro. Each one of them controls one element except the eldest of them all whom had mastery over all four elements. All the nhutus had similar features; females with small body sizes; dark skin and dark-brown eyes. The only distinction among the nhutus was their hair color. The white-haired nhutu was known to control wind. The black-haired nhutu had power to manipulate the earth. The element of fire was controlled by the red-haired nhutu and the blond-haired nhutu controls the element, water. But the eldest and their leader had all strands of hair interwoven to form a beautiful design on her head. She was also much older than her four subjects.

Once they arrived, they assumed a battle formation.  Two of them; the white and red-haired nhutus assumed their positions in front of their leader and the other two guarded her rear. This led Kiwakaazi to believe that they must be protecting their leader. Why? He was not certain but he guessed her life must be worth more than the others. Kiwakaazi dug the finger nails of his left hand into his right palm and started to pull something from his palm. Kaki realized it. She had not seen the kafunde (demon mummifier) with him since her recovery. While pulling, a black thread moved and wrapped around his left arm like a serpent. By the time he had finished pulling it out, he was no longer a human. He was now a rahasi (guardian of hell). He took in one deep breath and two marks appeared beneath his eyes just before he vanished.

He was fast. He used golden swords as steps to rise to the height of the nhutus. To verify his theory, he attacked the nhutu in the middle – the one being protected. However, the kafunde only sliced into halves a water queen. He disappeared and appeared standing on two of golden swords behind his foes. After Kiwakaazi’s attack, she changed back into a human being. Three golden swords attacked instantly and killed her. She disappeared and the other four with her disappeared too. His theory was correct.

Kiwakaazi disappeared and appeared beside Deila. He said, “That was easy?” Deila with a small frown said, “That was because they were not the real nhutus.” Kiwakaazi exclaimed, “What!?” Deila sighed before saying, “For a genius, you seem to be slightly blind.” Kiwakaazi frowned and thought, ‘Now she is simply mocking me.’

A small mound of earth rose from the ground in the forest beyond the valley of peace. It continued to rise and appeared wet. It looked like a human statue that became an actual human being after air and fire rushed and spread through the statue. It was the red-haired nhutu. She questioned, “What do you want me to do?” There was a long pause. She was probably taking instructions from an unseen being. She nodded twice or thrice during the pause and finally spoke: “I will make sure they get there and I promise to be careful.”

Kiwakaazi and Deila were now on the move again. If the five he had just defeated where not the real nhutus, then the real ones will be much stronger and difficult to defeat. Fighting them in the valley will make things much more complicated for them. Why? Isn’t it obvious? The valley was wide and inside the valley all the elements were present. The elements can be used as weapons against them. If that should happen, where will they hide? What will they use as shields in their battle against the nhutus? Not even a single tree grew in the valley of peace. It was difficult to abandon the valley but they had no other option. Fighting in the valley of peace will put them between a hard place and a rock.

Deila buried her face in her right palm and rubbed her forehead with her index finger while she tried to explain to Kiwakaazi why she thinks those nhutus were mere clones. “Kranjus do not disappear when defeated, they undergo stone mummification. It is the only way to ensure their resurrection. Besides, remember the color patterns I used to determine which of the fruits were poisonous or not? Well, the same pattern must be seen around the real nhutus, that is, pink and yellow. These ones had other color patterns.”

 Kiwakaazi opened his eyes widely whilst listening to her. “But how am I supposed to know that?” he questioned. “You are supposed to know if you call yourself a genius,” Deila answered. “But I never called myself a genius!” shouted Kiwakaazi. “You did not have to. Your battle with Aran showed how astute you are as a thinker,” she responded. Kiwakaazi blushed and became swollen headed. He was enjoying being praised by her for a change. “But I think that was just a flash in the pan!” Deila interjected. He stopped moving, frowned and thought for a while. Deila was still on the move. His face shone. He has finally figured something out. He ran after her shouting, “Wait…!”

They had already exited the cave or entrance of the valley of peace and walked for a while in the beautiful forest on the narrow foot path. Kiwakaazi finally caught up with Deila. He was about to say something but stopped and looked genuinely surprised.  

“The valley of peace again!?” they both exclaimed. But how is this possible? They just left the valley. How many valleys of peace are here? Yes! They have arrived at the valley of peace again. Okay, maybe it is not the same valley of peace they just exited but its identical twin. The same sized pools, fires and even the entrance was placed at about the same point. They wondered if their senses were being controlled by the nhutus. But that was impossible. The nhutus control elements. There was no way they could control their senses as well.

Deila pushed Kiwakaazi out of the way before he was burnt to a crisp. The red-haired nhutu snuck up on them from behind and shot a fireball from her mouth. Of course Kiwakaazi was her target. Deila pushed too hard. He fell and rolled down the stairs into the valley and Deila ran after him. Mission accomplished! The red nhutu was gone.

Kiwakaazi was unconscious. She shook him and shouted, “Kay, wake up!” He opened his eyes and held his head. He was suddenly suffering a terrible headache. “She just wanted to get us back into the valley,” said Deila. “She has succeeded!” Kiwakaazi concurred. She helped Kiwakaazi to his feet.

Deila saw the rise of the nhutus from the earth behind Kiwakaazi. It first started boiling over mud. It grew tall until it looked like a statue. Then, the wind blew and fire rushed into the chest area. The fire spread with the wind and human beings were created; four of them. While four were assembling in front of Deila, one was assembling in front of Kiwakaazi. After her resurrection from the soil, she spoke.

“I must say that I am very impressed you were able to defeat all the shinkos. You had help but still you do not look like someone skilled enough to defeat Arango-sango,” said Safihutu while looking at Kiwakaazi. Kiwakaazi did not know her. He just waited for her to finish her introduction and asked, “Who are you?”

Deila’s back faced her. After hearing the woman speak, she recognized the voice. It was the voice of her mother. She turned sharply to face the woman. She gasped for air and looked shell shocked.

Safihutu smiled when she saw Deila and said, “Hello, my daughter!”

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